Transformational Leadership With Rania Hoteit
By: Dr. Tomi Mitchell
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In this episode, I, your host, Dr. Tomi Mitchell, had the pleasure of interviewing the lovely Rania Hoteit
About Our Guest
Rania Hoteit is a multi-award-winning serial entrepreneur, global impact leader, author, advisor, and speaker with recognitions from the White House, United Nations, UK Parliament, The Global CEO Excellence Award, and other prestigious honors. With her deep expertise and exceptional success record, Rania is a sought-after leadership consultant who guides innovation transformation, human development, and business growth for companies around the world. As Founder and former CEO of ID4A Technologies, Rania built a company whose cutting-edge developments have been revolutionizing manufacturing processes and creating significant environmental, economic and social impact worldwide. Under her leadership, ID4A was recognized by the White House Office of Science and Technology for 'Fostering The Development of Advanced Manufacturing in the US as The World'; ranked on Entrepreneur 360's list of the “Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America”; honored on Inc. 5000 List of “America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies”; received the Real Leaders “100 Top Impact Companies” Award and other global honors, including LUXlife's "World's Best Emerging Design Technology Company", Fast Company's World Changing Ideas Awards for the company's innovative "Pandemic Response" and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Citizens Awards for "Best Economic Opportunity and Empowerment Program."
Rania has been featured in notable publications including Forbes, Huffington Post, Inc, Entrepreneur, Le Commerce Du Levant, and Thrive Global. Through her commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals, more than 1800 manufacturing businesses adopted sustainable practices. Additionally, she has contributed to reducing labor exploitation in global production pipelines by improving the skills and working conditions of over 2 million workers by the end of 2021. Recently, she was named by Oprah Winfrey among the "7 Disruptive Women Paving The Way For Success in 2022".
Transcript
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 0:06
Hello everyone, this is your host Dr. Tomi Mitchell from the Mental Health and Wellness Show. Today I have the pleasure of introducing Ed Jam. Her name is Rania Hoitet. She is a multi award winning Serial Entrepreneur, Global Impact leader, public speaker, advisor and author with recognitions from the White House, United Nations, United Kingdom house of parliament, the global CEO Excellence Award and other prestigious honors. Rania has been featured in Forbes Huffington Post's Inc Magazine, Thrive Global AP economist, real leaders black commerce land want and more. And most recently, she was named alongside Oprah Winfrey as one of the seven disruptive women paving the way for success in 2022. As the founder and CEO of ID for a technologies, Rania has built an innovative company whose cutting edge developments are disrupting traditional supply chains, revolutionising production processes, and creating significant environmental, economic and social impact worldwide. With no further ado, I would love to introduce our guests. So welcome to the show.
Rania Hoitet 1:23
Thank you so much, Dr. Tommy, it's such a pleasure to be with you on the show today.
Yeah, for sure. Feelings are very, very mutual. You know, I introduced a more a little bit about you, but I'd love you to share with our listeners more about you that you think will be a benefit for them as they listen to our conversation.
Sure. I mean, where do you want me to start? There's so much.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 1:39
Oh, there is like.
Rania Hoitet 1:44
For the kind introduction as well. And you introduced me very well. And I would love audiences also to know that as a person who has been in leadership for a long time, and who has created a lot of success, humbly, so throughout my many years of being in, in positions of leadership, whether that is through my entrepreneurial journey, or through other partnerships that I've had, so I want everyone to know that if they want to reach me after this conversation that we have today, they are more than welcome to and learn more about me online as well, so.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 2:21
This is fabulous. Yeah, no, I honestly, when I read your bio, when I read it at the first time, it just puts a smile on my face, because like I said, you've done many of the things that I hope to do and some of the things I've done, but you take it to a new level. And knowing that climate of the world we're in right now and just hearing about your business, and just how you're disrupting traditional supply chains, and just revolutionising things that makes my heart sink because I don't know about you, I like, I know you do like this too. I love change, change. I embrace it. I embrace innovation. I don't believe just because you did this way all the time that it works, that you must stay doing it the same way. No, I believe in being open, be able to look outside the box, looking at situations as an opportunity and come together with different ideas to make change.
Rania Hoitet 3:12
True.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 3:13
Right?
Rania Hoitet 3:13
I can't agree more with you. I mean, I'm with you on the same boat. People like us are the ones that are leading change in many ways, whether that is within their organizations or within their communities or within the micro environments that they had created, the micro environments of influence as through the media or through the press and other means of sharing their knowledge and insights and passion. So we all have a role to fulfill on this planet.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 3:41
Yeah.
Rania Hoitet 3:42
And everybody has their own way of living their purpose and channeling that energy of, of desire for change in ways that can help others and motivate them to get on board and to see the world in different, with different eyes.
I love it. You know, I will talk more but I'm not sure what your previous life was before you did all these amazing things. But with me, I feel like my career as a physician was and just a woman of color who traveled the world live in different continents. That was kind of like training for the woman I'm walking into like that really embracing my calling, and that is to make an impact make a global impact. Like there, there are problems in this world which we can all see. But I believe that there are solutions we just have to rally leaders, true transformational leaders. People who know how to act, I think is important, but you must act at the right time. But the timing is key, right?
Timing is key.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 4:36
Timing is everything because you can make the right decision but the timing is wrong. It's a disaster. And I looking at everything I couldn't just agree even more. So this idea of transformational leadership. Do you mind giving the listeners a definition of what how you define transformational leadership?
Rania Hoitet 4:52
Sure, to give a bit of an overview what transformational leadership is because not everybody understands what it is but the comsat.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 5:00
Yes.
Rania Hoitet 5:00
Was initially introduced by Political Science and Leadership researcher. His name is James McGregor Burns, he, his studies came out in the 1970s. And he had defined the actions of transformational leadership's as when one or more persons engaged with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality. That was literally the, the core of his definition of what transformational leadership is. And then later on, of course, there was a lot of modifications to that initial theory. And in 1995, there was another leadership researcher, and Professor, his name is Bernard Bass. He's the one who actually expanded on Burnes ideas. And he developed those ideas further to what we know today as the past Transformational Leadership Theory, which literally consists of four main components of transformational leadership, which we're going to talk about in a moment, but it's basically defined by the impact that a leader has on his or her followers.
Love it. So you know, you mentioned the four components of transformational leadership, maybe let's go over that. So we can have a framework for our compensation. Do you mind sharing?
Yes, sure.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 6:08
Yeah.
Rania Hoitet 6:10
The, the full range of leadership introduces four elements of transformational leadership, which are known within that model as the four I's and the four I's referred to the first one. The first I I'm going to talk about is idealized influence. idealized influence is basically about helping to identify those who provide exemplary role models, who, whom others look up to, they follow, they aspire to be like, these are leaders who are people that we know as having very high ethical behavior, they can instill pride, they gain respect and are generally trusted to make great decisions. They are also within organizations as well, they are normally exceptional at attracting top talents to their organizations, because followers trust them, and they respect them, which also results in the followers wanting to emulate this individual and internalize his or her ideals. The second I is inspirational motivation, which is another key element here another another key component. The second I, which is inspirational motivation is really about leaders will have a clearer vision that is also combined with the communication skills to be able to paint a compelling picture of the future in ways that make the vision understandable, that make it precise, that make it powerful, and engaging. So those types of leaders that that, that have the capability of being inspirational and motivational. And that sense, they challenge their followers with very high standards, they communicate with optimism about the future and future goals, but they also help their followers to experience that same passion and that same motivation that they have so they could fulfill these goals. So and that way, they also provide a strong sense of purpose and meaning for their followers in order to motivate them to act. So this is a very powerful one which makes followers not only trust and believe, but also makes them motivated to invest their efforts and their tasks and make make them also believe in their abilities as well. So they feel encouraged and optimistic about the future. So this is a very, very strong component. The third I is intellectual stimulation. Intellectual stimulation is really refers to leaders who don't only challenge the status quo, but they also stimulate creativity and innovation among their followers. And we just talked about both of our passions about being you know, agents of change and inspiring innovation. But they also these types of individuals, they also encourage their followers to explore new ways of doing things and new opportunities to learn. And they also create safe environments were taking risks and turning mistakes into opportunities for deep learning. So these are really the kinds of environments that are conducive to innovation. They're also conducive to growth. This is where people are nurtured and developed to think independently and where great things happen. So organizations tend to generate way better results when you have this kind of environments that are conducive to growth and learning and independence of thinking as well. The fourt I, which is another critical component, I mean, they're all critical, obviously. But they all tie together the fourth one, which is really a key differentiator and this style of leadership is called individual individualized consideration. This is really about the degree to which the leader attends to each followers needs by offering support and mentorship by giving empathy and keeping communication open. And by being able to celebrate the individual's contribution and what each follower makes and contributes to the team or to the society or to the organization, whatever that group represents. In these cases, this is where the followers develop the will and aspiration for self development. And they start to use their intrinsic motivation to accomplish their tasks. So it's a very deep connection that these leaders are able to create with their followers. So in that sense, a transformational leader doesn't take a one size fits all approach to connecting with anyone with people in general, they are able to develop a deep understanding of what drives and motivates each individual. And they offer a more customized leadership approach that enables each follower to have the chance to succeed within the organization. And it also helps them to feel that they belong to the group or to the team or to the company. So So those four combined traits, or those major components lead to performance that is beyond expectation. And we see that being proven over and over again, through organizations that have these types of leadership, leadership styles, and have these types of leaders that are running these organizations.
Definitely these four I's are very inspirational like it, but the smile on my face just imagining an organization in a company and individuals working in this manner. You know, for your experience, what would you say the biggest challenge leadership is facing so far, because we have this gold standard, right, this transformational leadership model, but the fact that let's be honest, I don't say very often.
That's true. It's true. And that's for many reasons. First of all, because there's a huge misconception around leadership. And normally, it's it's really common to equate transformational leadership with a strong and who's the asset passionate personalities as the traits that drive transformational thinking and vision and change within a group or within an organization.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 12:51
So the charismatic kind of leader people think that they have waht they.
Rania Hoitet 12:54
Right. Exactly. Yeah, so, so that's it's true, those those are key traits that are important, and these types of leaders can automatically come to mind. But the characteristics of a transformational leader go so much deeper, and they shouldn't be thought of as an innate personality traits. I believe that becoming a transformational leader is about developing behaviors and strategies and actions that are grounded and leadership theory.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 13:22
Yes.
Rania Hoitet 13:23
But they go beyond those generalized characteristic traits that we associate with leadership because we have, honestly we have seen so many people that are energetic and that are enthusiastic, and they do have a vision of some sort, and they're charismatic. But when you look at the strategies, and the behaviors, and the actions, there's a whole other set of expectations that is missing from what a good leader or what an exemplary leader, we should be looking up to. So, so those are the deeper the deeper layers because those types of people that are transformational leaders, they're not only visionary, they're not only energetic and passionate individuals who are concerned and involved in a certain process or that are great at delivering certain certain results, they are recognized by a distinctive ability to help the group accomplish its goals and, and inspire positive change both in their followers and in the organization as a whole. Whether that is again like I say organization, we could be talking about our our school, within the community within our school or within our neighborhood or any any group that we belong to or we look at. So these types of leaders, they create a culture of innovation and positive change that leads to successful outcomes, whether that is business or social, or environmental or economic, again, depends on the contacts, but the outcomes happen because of that person being equally visionary, being equally a good mentor and a source of inspiration, and also having the ability to create distinctive culture within the organizations and the teams and the groups that they lead. And as a result, the typical sign that we see within these groups that are led by this type of leader, they're not only, you know, they're not only creating great results that are measured by accounting, kind of metrics, but those are groups where we can start to see the individuals becoming extremely loyal and extremely successful at an individual level. And in those cases, as well, the turn, the turnover tends to be quite low, within organizations, because transformational leaders are able to inspire a great deal of commitment and their followers as well. And that's why we see certain leaders that up until today, they're long gone, but there's still so much loyalty to who they are, and so much commitment to their vision way beyond you know, that their time on earth because they were so deeply connected to the groups that they were leading, and they had those high standards that they were able to connect with other with other people through but they were also able to inspire others to to achieve and to embody as well.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 16:28
You know, you almost read my mind, because the next kind of question I was gonna go to is okay, transformational leaders, they're amazing. They have highs like high standards, it's a big shoes to fill, so to speak. But I don't know, from my experience, when you do have those transformational leaders, they stand out, they're almost polarizing, right? And I also find that you might have one transformational leader, but then when that person moves on or passes away, or whatever, you don't necessarily get the same pow. Like, why, why is that society have fights against transformational leadership? Do you know what I'm saying? Like, do you do you see it, like, I see great leaders of the past and present, but then they do their thing, and then bam, something else, why?
Rania Hoitet 17:11
I think mainly because transformational leadership requires a very high level of cooperation, very high level of humility, very high level of ability to be equal with others. So that really turns off the the types that lack empathy, that that are more narcissistic in nature, that are not necessarily in leadership to be there, for the greater good of all, they are there for the greater good of self. And that's really the main differentiation there. It really this is, this is why there are certain things that we can teach about leadership. But there are things that are so innate, like if on the inside, you are not that empathetic, inclusive, open minded, loving, caring person, there's no way you can reach that level of becoming a transformational leader, because you don't care about other people. It's that simple. And transformational leadership, at its core is about the empowerment of self.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 18:26
Yes.
Rania Hoitet 18:26
And empowerment of others through being an empowered self. It's not about the empowerment of self on the expense of others. It's that simple.
Dr. Tomi Mitchell 18:37
I love it. You are like music to my ears, because in order for a transformational leader to thrive, they need empathetic supportive community society, isn't that correct?
Rania Hoitet 18:50
100%.